| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
University of Haifa
University of Haifa
Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel
Impaired empathic response has been described in patients following brain injury, suggesting that empathy may be a fundamental aspect of the social behavior disturbed by brain damage. However, the neuroanatomical basis of impaired empathy has not been studied in detail. The empathic response of patients with localized lesions in the prefrontal cortex (n = 25) was compared to responses of patients with posterior (n = 17) and healthy control subjects (n = 19). To examine the cognitive processes that underlie the empathic ability, the relationships between empathy scores and the performance on tasks that assess processes of cognitive flexibility, affect recognition, and theory of mind (TOM) were also examined. Patients with prefrontal lesions, particularly when their damage included the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, were significantly impaired in empathy as compared to patients with posterior lesions and healthy controls. However, among patients with posterior lesions, those with damage to the right hemisphere were impaired, whereas those with left posterior lesions displayed empathy levels similar to healthy controls. Seven of nine patients with the most profound empathy deficit had a right ventromedial lesion. A differential pattern regarding the relationships between empathy and cognitive performance was also found: Whereas among patients with dorsolateral prefrontal damage empathy was related to cognitive flexibility but not to TOM and affect recognition, empathy scores in patients with ventromedial lesions were related to TOM but not to cognitive flexibility. Our findings suggest that prefrontal structures play an important part in a network mediating the empathic response and specifically that the right ventromedial cortex has a unique role in integrating cognition and affect to produce the empathic response.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  C. I. Hooker, S. C. Verosky, L. T. Germine, R. T. Knight, and M. D'Esposito Mentalizing about emotion and its relationship to empathy Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, September 1, 2008; 3(3): 204 - 217. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. S. Heberlein, A. A. Padon, S. J. Gillihan, M. J. Farah, and L. K. Fellows Ventromedial Frontal Lobe Plays a Critical Role in Facial Emotion Recognition J. Cogn. Neurosci., April 1, 2008; 20(4): 721 - 733. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P. Valent Eight Survival Strategies in Traumatic Stress Traumatology, June 1, 2007; 13(2): 4 - 14. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Z. S. Hoffer, S. L. Allen, and M. Mathews Treatment of Psychiatric Symptoms Associated With a Frontal Lobe Tumor Through Surgical Resection Am J Psychiatry, June 1, 2007; 164(6): 877 - 882. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Ruby, C. Schmidt, M. Hogge, A. D'Argembeau, F. Collette, and E. Salmon Social mind representation: where does it fail in frontotemporal dementia? J. Cogn. Neurosci., April 1, 2007; 19(4): 671 - 683. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. P. Rankin, M. L. Gorno-Tempini, S. C. Allison, C. M. Stanley, S. Glenn, M. W. Weiner, and B. L. Miller Structural anatomy of empathy in neurodegenerative disease Brain, November 1, 2006; 129(11): 2945 - 2956. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. T. Wang, S. S. Lee, M. Sigman, and M. Dapretto Neural basis of irony comprehension in children with autism: the role of prosody and context Brain, April 1, 2006; 129(4): 932 - 943. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Shaw, J. Bramham, E. J. Lawrence, R. Morris, S. Baron-Cohen, and A. S. David Differential Effects of Lesions of the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex on Recognizing Facial Expressions of Complex Emotions J. Cogn. Neurosci., September 1, 2005; 17(9): 1410 - 1419. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. N. Schore Back to Basics: Attachment, Affect Regulation, and the Developing Right Brain: Linking Developmental Neuroscience to Pediatrics Pediatr. Rev., June 1, 2005; 26(6): 204 - 217. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. B. Powell and K. K. S. Voeller Prefrontal Executive Function Syndromes in Children J Child Neurol, October 1, 2004; 19(10): 785 - 797. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. Mah, M. C. Arnold, and J. Grafman Impairment of Social Perception Associated With Lesions of the Prefrontal Cortex Am J Psychiatry, July 1, 2004; 161(7): 1247 - 1255. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. M. Bird, F. Castelli, O. Malik, U. Frith, and M. Husain The impact of extensive medial frontal lobe damage on 'Theory of Mind' and cognition Brain, April 1, 2004; 127(4): 914 - 928. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| NEURAL COMPUTATION | J COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE | MIT PRESS JOURNALS |
